There’s no other way to spin this than “disappointing.” The New Orleans Saints spent months recruiting Justin Simmons only for him to sign with their archrivals, the Atlanta Falcons.
Mickey Loomis, the longest-tenured general manager in the league, has made another mistake in free agency. Loomis is known for stubbornly sticking to his offers in free agency — letting good players like Marcus Williams and Carl Nicks walk away over the years. And his irresponsible spending at other positions has caught up to him.
Part of it is Derek Carr’s contract. The Saints overpaid him compared to what other washouts-turned-starting quarterbacks like Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield signed for in recent years. Another part is positional spending. Jamaal Williams looked like he was running in quicksand last season but he’s coming back with almost $4 million in guarantees anchoring him to New Orleans.
The Saints had the salary cap space to sign Simmons; Atlanta got him for a one-year, $8 million deal with $7.5 million guaranteed. Depending on where you look New Orleans is under the cap by at least $10 million, and they had a couple of levers to pull and open up more space if they really wanted to. But Loomis and his leadership group in the front office didn’t want to do that.
We should acknowledge that lines up with how the Saints have spoken about this situation. They viewed signing Simmons as an opportunity to upgrade, not necessarily a must-have asset. They’ve won games before with Jordan Howden and Johnathan Abram starting next to Tyrann Mathieu. It’s just discouraging when Dennis Allen is bemoaning how neither of those two guys are impressing him after training camp practice every day.
It’s still disappointing. The Saints had so many things working in their favor. They were Simmons’ first stop and first choice on his free agent tour. They had been in the longest contact with him. Two of his former position coaches are on staff, as are former teammates dating back to his college days. Ultimately none of that mattered because they refused to pay up.
If Loomis hadn’t spent so recklessly elsewhere maybe he could’ve bit the bullet and given Simmons what he wanted. Instead, he had less wriggle-room than he’d like, and his instincts told him to stand pat. Now the two-time Pro Bowl will be playing against the Saints twice this year. It’s a good thing he only intercepted Derek Carr once in their last dozen meetings.
